Contents

Game features

Project 8 features one giant streaming city to skate in (only on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360), which contains various skateparks and "hidden sections". An E3 preview by a member of the PlanetTonyHawk.com staff stated "The levels are massive and an amalgamation of just about every level in the early THPS games. So Suburbia, School, Downtown and Factory (I, II and III) are all interconnected and part of the same town." [2] There are about 45 skaters in the game, including unlockable characters, who each have a unique mo-cap style (only on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360), providing a different experience and no recycled animations.

One new feature is the 'nail the trick' option. When a player enters this mode the camera will zoom in on the side to focus on the skateboard and the characters feet. Players will then be able to use the right analog stick to control the right foot and the left analog stick to control the left foot, allowing the player to flip and rotate the board in any such manner; including tapping the underside of the board in the air and merging various techniques to form new moves.

Another new ability in the game is to control the characters in the game during crashes, allowing you to obtain a high "Hospital bill", with bonus money awarded for broken bones - this feature is used in numerous challenges across the story mode (only on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360). Players can also induce a wreck manually in a way very similar to Thrasher: Skate and Destroy on the PlayStation. Lastly, players still have the option to get off their skateboard at any time and run, though it plays a very small role in the game overall, other than avoiding bails and extending combos.

The game has been met with mostly positive reviews, with the Xbox 360 version garnering an overall average of 81% on GameRankings. It was especially the subject of praise for its "Nail the Trick" mode and graphical enhancements (it has, however, received criticism for the removal of several key features).

Combined with the greater processing power of the current generation of consoles, this presents a big leap in graphical appearance over the rest of the series, which has somewhat stagnated in this area; despite many people criticized the facial animations of the models, calling them unrealistic looking.[citation needed]

In the GameSpot review of the PlayStation 3 version, Project 8 was criticized for its lack of online play and unstable framerate.[3]
Criticism has been aimed at the versions of the game on all Sony systems (PSP, PS2, PS3) which all lack any online multiplayer functions. Major gaming websites like IGN and GameSpot note that since the Tony Hawk franchise was the first game series available to be playable online on the PlayStation 2, the PlayStation 3's omission is strange, especially considering the Xbox 360 version is fully playable on Xbox Live, and all prior versions of the series back to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 have been fully supported by online play with the PlayStation 2.[citation needed]

Awards

Received the IGN award for Best Licensed Soundtrack on PlayStation 3 in 2006.

Soundtrack

The game's award-winning soundtrack featured 57 tracks from a variety of artists.[4]